Читать книгу Edge of the Map. The Mountain Life of Christine Boskoff онлайн

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Scott’s strength and skill at scaling mountains were formidable. He loved telling stories in which he was the punch line, blurring the divide between novice climber and master. Treating everyone, from Sherpas and high-altitude porters to clients, as equals became a hallmark of his expeditions, along with honoring the environment, which Scott believed was as important as treasuring its beauty.

Among Scott’s earliest supporters was Geri Lesko, who had come to the sport of mountaineering in her late forties. Geri had gained an appreciation for the outdoors from summers at a family camp in Yosemite. Mountaineering became a natural passion, and she pursued fourteen-thousand-foot peaks in California and Colorado. In 1990, she found herself in Washington attempting to summit Mount Rainier, where she met noted Seattle climber Ed Viesturs. She was introduced to Scott in 1995.

“The first time I met him,” Geri recalled, “he extended his hand to escort me from the cab. I’d arrived to view a pre-expedition slide show in Seattle for a trip I was taking with him to Pakistan. I looked up and said, ‘Scott, you are just as gorgeous as everyone says you are, but are you any good?’ He laughed and said, ‘You’ll see.’” Fifteen years older than Scott, Geri became a confidante and trusted adviser, lending her ear as he worked to establish himself as a leader in international guided expeditions.